Gregory A. Summersgsummers@thelancasternews.com
Gene Wallace knows what spick-and-span means. He learned it as a deckhand on the USS New Jersey, America’s most decorated battleship.
“I spent five-and-a-half years on that ship,” said the 81-year-old Wallace, who joined the U.S. Navy when the Korean War broke out.

Christopher Sardellicsardelli@thelancasternews.com
It’s back to the drawing board as Lancaster County Council once again shot down a plan to revise commercial zoning in the Panhandle at its May 21 meeting.
For the second time in two weeks, council members passed on addressing an ordinance crafted to revise the B-3 zoning classification in Indian Land.
Council voted 6-0 at the meeting to table the ordinance. District 1 Councilman Larry McCullough was not present.

Jesef Williamsjwilliams@thelancasternews.com
Musical acts of various kinds and fun activities for the entire family appear to have made for a great combination at last weekend’s Red Rose Festival.
Organizers of the third annual festival say the two-day event was a success, drawing more people than last year and giving hope for an even better time in 2013.
The estimated attendance for Friday and Saturday was between 2,500 and 3,000, said Caroline Hasty of marketing group See Lancaster SC. The aim, though, was to draw 5,000.

Reece Murphyrmurphy@thelancasternews.com
A 7.11 percent jump in overall expenditures marks this year’s Lancaster County School District’s proposed 2012-13 general fund and debt services budgets amounting to a combined total of $89.1 million.
School offcials said this year’s proposed general fund budget reflects an increase in state funding that will allow raises for district personnel for the first time since 2010, when state budget cuts forced district cutbacks and salary freezes.

Christopher Sardellicsardelli@thelancasternews.com
A local medical transportation service will keep its wheels turning for at least one more year, thanks to a recent resolution by Lancaster County Council.

Christopher Sardellicsardelli@thelancasternews.com
Rescue workers, firefighters and law enforcement were busy Thursday, May 24, as they responded to two separate car accidents within hours of each other.
The first accident happened at about 10:40 a.m. along Catoe Road, between Camp Creek Road and Pageland Highway, when a car drove off the road and landed in a heavily wooded area.

Christopher Sardellicsardelli@thelancasternews.com
An argument over a woman resulted in the arrest of a Lancaster man for attacking another man with a gun earlier this month.
Donald Kenneth Medlin, 59, 2016 Powell Ave., was arrested May 7, and charged with first-degree assault and battery, according to a Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

“Short days ago; We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow; Loved and were loved, and now we lie…in fields and oceans all about the world.” (With credit and respect to the late Lt. Col John McCrae)
Flags carefully placed along streets, freshly polished monuments and markers, neatly mown grass where the fallen now silently lie – the almost antiseptic appearance belies the horrors that brought those who sacrificed their most precious gift to their final resting place.

Sherry Archie
For The Lancaster News
Forty-seven years ago, Philip and Hedwig Burbach, along with their three young daughters, left their homeland of Germany behind and moved to the United States. They were following the lead of Philip’s brother, George, who settled here in 1957.